Proxy armies

The generals of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) are regularly seen in Khartoum, alongside other South Sudanese rebels.

Small Arms Survey has traced where the various rebel groups get their weapons from, and the evidence suggests, in essence, that both countries are running proxy armies in the other's national territories.

The timing of certain attacks raises eyebrows too.

When Sudan seized the disputed region of Abyei last year, the SSLA attacked just further south on the same day, tying up part of South Sudan's army.

The first South Sudan army advance on Heglig, at the end of March, coincided with a SPLM-North attempt to take Talodi.

"They orchestrated these attacks on Talodi and Heglig simultaneously, they did it from one plan and one target," Mr Haroun says.

Several sources say Darfuri rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement are also fighting in and around Heglig now.

Jem is one of several Darfuri groups that has signed an alliance with SPLM-North.

The prices are soaring because of the war... now people cannot afford to repair their bicycles so it has affected my income very muchHamid Tir

They are clearly taking advantage of South Sudan's occupation of the oil fields, a moment of real weakness for Khartoum, to launch further attacks in South Kordofan.

All this means that when delegations from Khartoum and Juba sit down to discuss security in Addis Ababa, proxy armies are high on the agenda.

For now, those talks are suspended.

But Sudan and South Sudan will not be able to make peace while rebel groups in both countries cloud the picture.

In the meantime, people are suffering.

The dominant narrative of the conflict in South Kordofan, at least in the Western media, has been that of Sudanese planes killing and injuring civilians in the Nuba mountains.

This undoubtedly happens.

The UN estimates hundreds of thousands more people, unable to farm due to the bombings, could flee the Nuba mountains - and hunger will begin to bite.

But people in the government-held areas have suffered too.

Mr Haroun says 35 people were killed, 54 wounded, and more than 28,000 were forced to flee the area because of the attack on Talodi.

It is impossible to independently verify these numbers, but a UN statement confirms many people did flee Talodi.

Hamid Tir said two of his brothers died in a car crash as they tried to escape the shelling.

He still has scars on his nose from the accident.

Talodi is now calmer, and people have started to return, but Mr Tir's bicycle repair business is struggling.

"The prices are soaring because of the war," he says.

"I used to get more before, but now people cannot afford to repair their bicycles so it has affected my income very much."

War of religions?

Many of the people in Talodi South Kordofan
.

Most are Arabs, who are often perceived to support the government.

"They are losing the war in Southern Kordofan, and they are dependent on trying to divide people along ethnic and religious lines," says Yassir Arman, the secretary general of the SPLM-North rebels.

The conflict in South Kordofan is far more complex than black African Nuba against Arabs, as it is sometimes portrayed.

Some Nuba, like Mr Tir, support the government.

The Nuba follow Islam, Christianity and traditional religions.

But Mr Haroun's followers do sometimes perceive this as a war of religions.

Ibrahim Mohamed Musa looks every day of his 55 years.

But he has an AK-47 strapped to his bike, and has signed up to a paramilitary police force.

Ibrahim Mohamed Musa has taken up arms

"We are protecting our religion, so they will not take the area," Mr Musa says

"They are non-believers, and we are Muslim, so they will not defeat us."

Mr Haroun, who travelled around Talodi in a convoy of white 4x4s with only a small escort, was greeted by ululating women and men shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) everywhere he went.

For these people he seems to be a hero. For many others he is anything but.

Mr Haroun was indicted by the ICC for his apparent role in alleged war crimes in Darfur, another Sudanese civil war.

He rejected claims his troops were committing abuses in South Kordofan.

"We have a professional army," he says.

What about the civilians dying from bombs rolled out of the back of the government's Antonov planes in the Nuba mountains?

"We try to do our best always to select military targets," Mr Haroun says.

"But as you know in a war you cannot measure things accurately. There is friendly fire sometimes."

SPLM-North says Mr Haroun is carrying out atrocities in the Nuba mountains and elsewhere in the region.

"War is becoming the only agenda of people within the regime headed by [President Omar al-] Bashir," Mr Arman told the BBC.

I asked Mr Haroun if he was worried he would face further charges from the ICC for alleged crimes in South Kordofan.

"I don't care about that, it is a political court, it is not professional," he says - and he accuses the SPLM-North - and the rebels' alleged South Sudanese backers - of carrying out human rights abuses.

As long as the war in South Kordofan continues, it is difficult to imagine a peaceful relationship between Sudan and South Sudan.